The planet Arkanis is a beautiful and vibrant ecumenopolis at the heart of the sector it lends its name to. Most of its surface is covered in a gleaming urbanscape that is subjected to constant precipitation, except for several large inhospitable areas of high volcanic activity along the equator. Various sentient species from both the local interstellar neighbourhood, such as the Issori or Odenji, as well as the wider galactic community, call this world their home. The seemingly endless planet-wide city is built in a style that is reminiscent of the architecture of Ator, a historic ecumenopolis of the Core from which the Human colonists that had originally settled Arkanis had arrived.

Before its planetwide urbanisation, Arkanis had been a relatively cold world with expansive polar caps in the northern and southern hemispheres and wet, dreary weather across the globe. The rain-soaked lands between the ice caps and the volcanically active equator were largely dominated by marshy terrain and wide open stretches of tundra, where forests of cold-hardened species of trees dominated the landscape. Geologists speculate that those stretches of land had once been covered beneath towering ice caps as well, pointing to the differences in elevation and the geological makeup of the soil as proof of their theory. It is likely the volcanic activity omnipresent in the equatorial regions caused an effect of global warning that forced the polar ice caps to recede to their current size and scope.

Historically, Arkanis was the throneworld of the Regency Worlds, a collection of systems in the Arkanis sector ruled by an imperial monarch. The small empire had formed from the planets that had been successfully settled by the human colonists from Ator in 4200 BCGT. The Regency had held sway over the Arkanis sector for several millennia, until its unity and cohesion started to fracture during the Clone Wars, and eventually collapsed entirely during the events of the Galactic Civil War. Most systems that had been under Arkanis' sway maintained economic ties with the former throneworld but have evolved independently, both culturally and politically.

While in present times, the Arkanis monarchy continues to reign over the planet, its power has regressed to a purely ceremonial role with no political pull or influence. Its citizens are instead ruled by a democratically elected administration loyal to the interstellar government that has replaced the Regency as the current dominant political power in the Arkanis sector.